Pub-goers looking to enjoy a pint of Guinness ahead of St Patrick’s Day might be shocked to learn that the price of a pint of the black stuff can vary by up to 117% in different pubs across Ireland and the UK.

New cost analysis by leading job board CV-Library gathered the price of a pint of Guinness in over 200 pubs across 20 different cities and found that cheapest pint in Northern Ireland is in Lisburn (€3.32) and for Ireland you can choose between Waterford and Drogheda (€4.30).

Including the UK, the most expensive pint was found in London and priced at €5.86, over half the London Living Wage. This is 74% more expensive than the cheapest price located in the capital and 70% pricier than the cheapest pint found north of the border in Scotland (€3.44, or just over a third of the UK Living Wage).

Dublin was close behind, with the capital’s most expensive pint coming in at €5.70, only 16c cheaper than London. (The researchers clearly never made it to Temple Bar, where a pint of stout can cost up to €8.)

In Newport, Wales, the cheapest pint (€2.70) is €1.69 lower than the total average across the UK and ROI (€4.39) and enough for an extra pack of Tayto!

This was closely followed by Lisburn in the North, which had pints on offer for as little as €3.32.

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Birmingham and London were found to have the greatest variance, with prices changing up to €2.20, depending on the watering hole of choice. This was closely followed by Newport, Wales (€1.81) and the Northern Irish cities of Lisburn (€1.75) and Belfast (€1.52).

On the flip side, two Irish cities displayed the least variation in price, with pints in Waterford only shifting up to 11% (40c) and Drogheda only 13% (50c).

On a national level, Wales showed the biggest fluctuation in cost, with prices varying by up to €2.37. The Irish had the least variance (32%), with prices ranging between €4.34-€5.75, while the prices in England displayed greater inconsistency, with amounts shifting up to 74% across London, Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester.

Scotland (51%) and Northern Ireland (56%) fell in the middle, with pricing alternating from €3.44-€5.18 for the Scots and €3.32-€5.18 for the Irish.

Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library commented: “With St Patrick’s Day just around the corner, we know workers across the whole of the UK and, of course, the Emerald Isle will be celebrating.

"Yet by comparing the price of Ireland’s favourite beer to living wages across the UK and the Republic of Ireland, we were surprised to find how significantly it can vary.”